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Fr. Smith’s Commentary on the First Reading
Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Ezekiel: 17:22-24
June 13, 2021

We return today to the Book of Ezekiel. He was an interesting man who lived in interesting times and always seems to have something to say our contemporary situation. Before examining today’s passage let us look at his life and then the passage before the one chosen for today.

Ezekiel was born about 622 BC in Jerusalem and died about 570 BC in Babylon and the dates and places tell his story. Jerusalem was situated on the trade route between Egypt to the south and whatever power was dominating the north. Never a mighty empire, the Jews were able to play one power off against the other to maintain significant independence for over 3 centuries. Ezekiel lived at the time when this ended. In 609 BC, the leaders of Judah thought that the Neo-Babylonian empire was ascendant and allied themselves with it. By 597 the leadership felt that it was weakening, and they could assert more independence. This was a grave miscalculation and the Babylonians invaded, conquered Jerusalem, and took King Jehoiachin and many Jewish leaders into captivity. Ezekiel was one of these and he spent the rest of his life in Babylon. The Babylonians under King Nebuchandnezzar placed Zedekiah in his place. He seemed to be pro-Babylonian but sometime between 593 BC and 488 BC he thought he could get a better deal from Egypt and sought and alliance. In 586/87 BC, Nebuchadnezzar reacted and destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple exiling the remaining leaders of the people especially the royal court, the scribes and the priests. Without the temple, how could the Covenant be maintained and without the monarchy how could the promise to David be fulfilled? All that could be seen was devastation. (This may be found in 2 Kings 24:6–20) Ezekiel however saw more. He expressed the situation and its cause poetically in the Parable or riddle of the eagles.